Solar energy: where Morocco's giant steps put Africa in a good orbit

Thick gray-blue clouds darkened the horizon. We can only distinguish the speakers of the gigantic parks that we have been along for several minutes by car. A roundabout, then here are still others. Behind their fences align, back turned, thousands of curved panels. These are cylindro-parabolic mirrors. Their function: to concentrate solar radiation in the tubes that run along them, where heat transfer fluids circulate. Except that between the clouds and the raging rain which suddenly falls, the mirrors no longer capture much. The peak of electricity production reached around 3 p.m., close to 160 MW, even falls suddenly on one of the screens in the Noor 1 control room, one of the four power stations in the Noor Ouarzazate solar complex, 200 kilometers south-east from Marrakech. "Any fall in solar irradiation directly impacts production, and this intermittent challenge concerns all renewable energies," explains Rachid Bayed, director of Masen (Moroccan agency for sustainable energy). Not enough to disturb the tranquility of the engineers present. "We use an energy storage system that allows you to overcome this difficulty," continues Rachid Bayed.

A production of non -intermittent electricity ...

Noor Ouarzazate is the showcase of Morocco's ambitions in terms of renewable energies - the kingdom aims at 42 % of the mix of renewable origin in 2020 and 52 % in 2030 - and technological innovation. In this large arid and ocher plain, between Mediterranean and Sahara, has erected what is about to become the largest thermodynamic solar complex in the world, with a capacity of 580 MW -the 72 MW in photovoltaic. Unlike photovoltaic solar which directly transforms the light energy of the photons into electricity, the solar thermodynamics with concentration (CSP) has the capacity to store this energy. How ? By transforming it into thermal energy usable at any time, and above all, as soon as the sun declines. "In Morocco, what matters to us is to produce electricity until midnight," said Rachid Bayed, from the top of a tower that offers an impressive view of the solar complex. It is a site of 30 square kilometers that extends before our eyes - almost the area of ​​a city like Lille! At the end: Noor Ouarzazate I, inaugurated in February 2016 by King Mohammed VI. With a capacity of 160 MW-and "which already performed beyond" according to Rachid Bayed-, it covers the equivalent of the consumption of nearly 600,000 inhabitants. And has a 3 -hour storage capacity. In its extension, in an arc of circle: Noor Ouarzazate II. The technology is similar (thermo-solar with cylindro-parabolic mirrors), but its storage capacity is climbing at 7 am.

... which allows you to "spend the night"

Thanks to the concentration of solar irradiation, the fluids circulating in the heat transfer tubes can reach very high temperatures.They then land in large tanks.“These are bins of melted salt at 390 ° C.This is where we store the energy that allows us to continue to produce electricity for the end of the day, and we can even spend the night, ”smiles Rachid Bayed.This very powerful thermal energy system can thus activate turbines and produce current, as in a classic power station."With Noor III, the heat concentration reaches an even higher level: 560 ° C," he adds, showing a large tower which stands out from the snowy peaks of Haut-Atlas.

Noor III, whose commissioning is "in progress" (like Noor II), is another type of thermodynamic solar power plant.At the top of its tower, a receiver concentrates the solar radiation reflected by 7,400 mirrors of 180 square meters, and inside also circulates a fluid, whose heat generates high pressure steam.Again, storage exceeds 7 hours.Noor IV, finally, is based on photovoltaics, with motorized panels that follow the position of the sun ... like sunflowers.

"Noor", a solar plan at the forefront

“Masen has chosen to leave technological freedom on each of its power plants in order to see, among these innovative technologies, which would be the most competitive and the most effective in the long term.However, today, both thermo-solar technology with cylindro-parabolic sensors and that with Tour is the bearer of the future ”comments Mathilde Bord-Larans, energy division manager at the French Development Agency (AFD).

When the Noor solar plan was launched in Morocco in 2009, only the United States and Spain had developed concentration thermodynamic systems.It was therefore not won in advance.However, the kingdom was able to "both be funded by international donors and attract very high level competition between private players", according to Mathilde Bord-laurans.AFD, for its part, has granted two loans of 150 million euros in total and a subsidy of 300,000 euros in the Noor level.As for tenders, they attracted national companies, Europe and Asia.The amount of investments, to achieve the objective of producing 2,000 MW of solar energy in 2020, is estimated at nearly 8 billion euros.

The solar thermodynamic energy, an asset for Africa?

In addition to Morocco, thermodynamic solar power plants (concerated solar power, CSP in English) are today active in South Africa, Algeria and Egypt. Faced with the immense challenge to access energy on the continent - around 600 million Africans are deprived of electricity - and in the perspective of the New Deal for Energy in Africa, which is focusing on a production of 10 GW from renewable energies in 2025, could the CSP gain other territories? If the cost of building these power plants is much higher than that of a photovoltaic complex, "solar potential remains one of the major factors to optimize the prices of the CSP", notes Rachid Bayed. And in this regard, the countries of the Sahelo-Saharan band, with the highest solar irradiation levels in the world, could open the way. Masen and the African Development Bank have also signed a "letter of intention" to strengthen solar capacities in 11 countries in the area. Cooperation is already engaged with Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Senegal.

A fervent defender of clean energies for the past thirty years, Youba Sokona, Special Sustainable Development Advisor at the South Center (Intergovernmental Organization of Southern countries who had as the first president in 1995 the ex-Tanzanian leader Nyerere), however, issues some reservations.“For a technology like the CSP to work in Africa, there are 4 prerequisites: to have a clear vision, ad hoc institutional infrastructure to translate this vision, internal means (human, political, financial) mobilized, and an ability toreconcile the tension between the short and the medium term.All this supposes a real leadership.This is the case of Morocco.It was not external institutions that dictated what to do.But few countries in Africa check all these boxes, ”he sums up.

The Revolution of Photovoltaic Solar

The fact remains that the boom in photovoltaics and the drop in costs in this area are better omitted."There, the advances have completely revolutionized the vision and the approach of the energy system in Africa," enthuses the specialist.

Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Uganda, Senegal, Zambia ... Difficult to list all African countries who see flourishing photovoltaic solar power plants, whether private or public projects.In all 2009 and 2014, the total capacity installed in Africa was multiplied by 10, to establish itself at 1,334 MW, according to the International Institute of Renewable Energies (Irena).“The cost of production of photovoltaics (PV) has gone below that of traditional power plants.With private projects launched on tender in Senegal, for example, the price obtained is 4 cents per kWh.Today, network PV solar prices are between 4 and 10 cents per kWh, depending on the level of irradiation, financing conditions, the size of the power station and the country risk ”, abounds Christian deGromard, energy expert at AFD.

Between the enthusiasm, the accessibility of prices and this unlimited resource, solar constraints are now "the capacity of national networks to adapt to manage all these PV electricity arrivals, characterized by its intermittent and variability, and the possibility for network operators to buy this electricity at a fair price, ”notes Mathilde Bord-laurans.

Multiple photovoltaic applications

The interest of this technology is that it also opens up a whole field of possibilities.In remote areas not served by the electricity network, solar mini-kits allow for example to supply a radio, a lamp, to recharge a phone.A less expensive solution than batteries or small groups supplied with diesel."In Africa unfolds a double electric revolution" on grid "and" off grid ", each supported by the acceleration of new tele -applications (mobile telephony, telepials, telegestion ...) and by the deployment of digital services in African countries",observes Christian de Gromard.

Photovoltaic solar is "much more suited to the African socio-economic context", according to Youba Sokona: "It offers flexible systems, while the centralized system excludes part of the populations.»»

However, to listen to the one who coordinated the African Center for the UN climate policy, then managed the African Initiative on Renewable Energies (AREI) of the African Union created at the end of COP21, In 2016, it would still be only to the beginnings of the Revolution. And to invite to depart "from a certain euphoric and folk approach of the question". Folkrical? Yes, he confirms: “The purpose of electrification is not the light. We must consider all applications, mechanical, mobile, production of heat, cold. Why do we see, for example, no clear approach binding agriculture and energy in Africa? Our agriculture is characterized by small productions, with rudimentary operating tools. While we can use solar to draw water, desalinize it ... Only 3 % of agricultural land is irrigated in Africa. Go to 10 %, 20 %, or more, and you change the situation. »»

Another area in which solar energy can make it possible to achieve great progress, according to him: the condition of women."Look at the tasks incumbent up on many Africans: they transform cereals or do the laundry manually, they will look for wood for cooking ... Solar can allow you to set up mechanical washing centers, and to imagine devicesservants adapted to African uses!»Leaves Youba Sokona."We are still in a diagram totally focused on supply, we have not yet redesigned the way of approaching energy by demand," concludes, a bit sorry, the vice-president of the IPCC (group ofintergovernmental experts on climate development).

Another stake, in size, for the African continent: accelerating its energy transition to reduce the share of diesel or gas power plants, very emissive in CO2, while the demand for electricity follows the curve of strong population growth.It was also to emancipate from its high dependence on imported fossil energy that Morocco had decided, barely 10 years ago, to switch to renewable energies.With clairvoyance, and at a load.